ATTORNEY GENERAL RAOUL URGES CONGRESS TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST ROBOCALLS

Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul, as part of a coalition of 54 attorneys general today urged Congress to enact the Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act, which would curb illegal robocalls and spoofing.

In a letter issued today, Raoul and the attorneys general urged Congress to support the TRACED Act, which is sponsored by Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and Sen. Edward Markey of Massachusetts.

“Complaints related to robocalls continue to be among the most common consumer complaints in Illinois and nationally,” Raoul said. “I encourage the Senate to pass the TRACED Act and help limit the volume of these nuisance calls people receive.”

In the letter, Raoul and the attorneys general state that the TRACED Act enables states, federal regulators, and telecom providers to take steps to combat these illegal calls. The legislation will require voice service providers to participate in a call authentication framework to help block unwanted calls, and creates an interagency working group to take additional actions to reduce robocalls and hold telemarketers and robocallers accountable.

“There are no blue robocalls or red robocalls, just unwanted robocalls. This bipartisan effort from all of the nation’s attorneys general is a powerful statement that we need to take action now to stop the scourge of robocalls and robotexts and that there is support from all corners to do so. I thank our leading law enforcement officials for their support for the TRACED Act,” said Sen. Markey.

More than 48 billion robocalls were made in 2018, making them the number one source of consumer complaints to the FTC and the FCC and resulting in millions of dollars in consumer losses. Illinois consumers filed more than 250,000 complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls last year. The state attorneys general work to enforce do-not-call laws and protect consumers in their states from being harassed and scammed by robocalls.